#443 Looking up while underwater

Sunlight shimmers and glimmers across shaky waves as treetops twist into melted shadows. Silence clogs your ears as you drift alone in your secret underwater chamber deep in the ocean darkness or shallow in the backyard pool. Bubbles scream up all around you as you float like an astronaut in zero gravity and the world around you just smears and smudges and drifts away.

I may have been swimming in a sewer or water treatment plant, it’s hard to say.

Hahaha … totally kidding. But the dead fish thing was for real — poor guy had an unfortunate run-in with a boat propeller.

Side note: until pretty recently, I thought ALL lakes were more on the dirty/murky/dead-fishy side (that doesn’t stop me from swimming in them, mind you), but I’ve since witnessed some clean and pretty lakes. So glad I’ve seen the light!

Ooh, first one that isn’t awesome for me (since I’ve started reading). Being underwater, silence clogs your ears, you desperately try to get to the surface but the currents drag you down, you can’t breathe, you start to panic…

Still do this at the age of 34 and don’t plan to stop. Even my boys are starting to clue into this bit of awesomeness. Watching the clouds float by in the sunlit sky, trees gently swaying, birds in flight.. all seen through the shimmery looking glass of water …. It truly is AWESOME!

I was definitely thinking about how awesome this was when I was at the pool the other day. Whenever I think of something awesome it usually pops up as one of your posts in the next few day. That’s AWESOME!

I kind of miss the email messages that used to be attached to the posts. At first they were neat, then they got repetitive, but now that they’re gone I kind of miss hearing about how people were cheered up by the book. It’s a nice contrast to all the sad or annoying things that happen every day.

I usually try to do something fun each day, so I’m really enjoying this blog because it’s giving me new ideas of things to enjoy. Even if it’s as simple as eating potato chips or the small accomplishment of putting away laundry, sometimes a small thing can really turn my mood around before I go to bed.

The only time this was not awesome was when I was whitewater rafting and the raft got sucked into a hole. I was completely underwater, but still sitting in the raft. It was very surreal. I thought “This can’t be good.” And then the raft popped up and shot me into the rapid. A friend on the shore threw me a rescue line. So, yes, looking up from underwater is pretty great most of the time, but a friend who will rescue you when it isn’t is what I call AWESOME!

I tend to avoid this most of the time because water normally gets up my nose when I face my face (ahaha) in any direction other than down. But when I look up and no water gets in, then it is well and truly
AWESOME!
But I’m not finished :P Once I was swimming and I happened to glance up and I saw this ‘thing’ above me and I freaked out thinking it was a giant fish… but then I realised it was just my reflection on the underside of the water surface. I never knew it reflected things from both ways until then! And I think I’ll add a waterproof camera to my Christmas list so I can use it during January at the beach!

Hey There. I found your blog using msn. This is a really well written article. I will be sure to bookmark it and come back to read more of your useful information. Thanks for the post. I will certainly comeback.

That reminded me of when I was a young girl swimming in my backyard. Whenever I had done that it felt like all my stress and worries had disappeared because of the mesmerizing beauty that came from above the water.